To groundless lies and slanders bold

Verse 1
To groundless lies and slanders bold
If others credit give,
Christians should their assent with-hold,
And but on proof believe:
Yet those who bear the name in vain
Nor pagan justice know,
Believe, against the righteous man,
His unconfronted foe.

Verse 2
Ev’n you, the holy fathers, you
Th’ inquisitors severe,
With blindfold enmity pursue
The Saviour’s members here:
Who tax the murtherers of Rome,
The house of mercy blame,
As hereticks unheard ye doom
Your brethren to the flame.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I gave commandment to his accusers also, to say before thee what they had against him.’—[Acts 23,] v. 30." This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 406.
Publishing: Public Domain